WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I have been looking 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:05.299 forward to this one, but I've also been dreading 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:07.780 it a little bit. I get that. We are looking at 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:10.140 a story today that is practically mythological 00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:13.279 in Hollywood. I think for most people, myself 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:16.620 included for a long time, this story is frozen 00:00:16.620 --> 00:00:19.870 in a single image. Oh, yeah. You know the one. 00:00:19.969 --> 00:00:22.710 White face paint, black trench coat, rain, and 00:00:22.710 --> 00:00:25.949 a crow perched on a tombstone. We are, of course, 00:00:25.969 --> 00:00:29.390 talking about Brandon Lee. But here's the thing, 00:00:29.449 --> 00:00:31.370 and this is why I wanted to do this deep dive. 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.829 If you stop at the tragic accident headline, 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:37.909 or if you only know him from The Crow, you are 00:00:37.909 --> 00:00:40.630 missing an incredibly complex story. You're missing 00:00:40.630 --> 00:00:42.619 almost all of it. It's a story about identity, 00:00:42.859 --> 00:00:46.380 about philosophy and about the crushing weight 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:48.399 of legacy. It's a heavy one. And you're right. 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:50.679 The cultural memory is so specific. It's almost 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:52.920 like the tragedy of his death just completely 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:55.200 eclipsed the reality of his life. Just swallowed 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:57.820 it whole. When you mention Brandon Lee, people 00:00:57.820 --> 00:00:59.960 immediately think of the curse or they think 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:02.899 of the gun. They think of the end. But looking 00:01:02.899 --> 00:01:04.859 through this stack of notes, all the articles 00:01:04.859 --> 00:01:09.159 and biographies we have here. The tragedy is 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:12.480 actually just the final punctuation mark on a 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.519 sentence that was becoming really, really interesting. 00:01:14.969 --> 00:01:17.349 That's the mission today. We are going to move 00:01:17.349 --> 00:01:20.010 beyond the headlines. We have a massive archive 00:01:20.010 --> 00:01:22.390 of source material here. I mean, interviews, 00:01:22.730 --> 00:01:24.930 production notes, even the forensic reports on 00:01:24.930 --> 00:01:26.930 the accident and all these anecdotes from his 00:01:26.930 --> 00:01:28.769 childhood. A lot to get through. I want to unpack 00:01:28.769 --> 00:01:31.569 the man, you know, not just the myth, because 00:01:31.569 --> 00:01:33.329 when I was reading through this, what struck 00:01:33.329 --> 00:01:36.349 me wasn't just the spooky coincidences. And believe 00:01:36.349 --> 00:01:38.530 me, we will get to those. We will. It would this 00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:41.290 universal struggle. It's a story about fathers 00:01:41.290 --> 00:01:43.930 and sons. It's about trying to carve out your 00:01:43.930 --> 00:01:46.260 own. When your last name is literally the most 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:48.959 famous name in your industry. Identity is the 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:51.519 key word for this entire hour. It really is. 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:53.900 If you look at the trajectory, Brandon Lee's 00:01:53.900 --> 00:01:56.760 life was a constant negotiation with a shadow 00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:59.799 that was, quite frankly, impossible to escape. 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.120 Totally impossible. He wasn't just an actor's 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:05.260 son. He was the son of a man who was viewed as 00:02:05.260 --> 00:02:09.599 a philosopher king, a martial arts deity. A deity 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:12.020 is the right word. Bruce Lee wasn't just a star. 00:02:12.060 --> 00:02:14.960 He was a cultural revolution in human form. And 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:16.919 Brandon had to walk into every room with that 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:19.520 following him. Always. But before we get to the 00:02:19.520 --> 00:02:21.219 struggle, let's go back to the very beginning. 00:02:21.400 --> 00:02:25.159 Because the Chosen One narrative, it didn't start 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:27.560 when he got into movies. No, not at all. It started 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:31.080 in the delivery room. Literally day one. Brandon 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:34.659 Bruce Lee, born February 1st, 1965, in Oakland. 00:02:35.259 --> 00:02:38.819 Son of Linda Lee Cadwell and Bruce. Now, looking 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:40.539 at the birth announcements and the letters Bruce 00:02:40.539 --> 00:02:42.919 wrote around this time, you see a father who 00:02:42.919 --> 00:02:45.500 is just over the moon, completely ecstatic. As 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:47.580 you'd expect. But there is a detail here that 00:02:47.580 --> 00:02:49.780 I found fascinating regarding Bruce's reaction 00:02:49.780 --> 00:02:52.000 to Brandon's appearance, something he latched 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.039 on to immediately. This is the diverse features 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:55.759 comment, right? I couldn't believe this. Yes. 00:02:56.020 --> 00:02:58.120 Bruce was proudly telling anyone who would listen 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:00.840 that his son had diverse features. Brandon was 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:03.460 born with blonde hair and gray eyes. I have to 00:03:03.460 --> 00:03:04.960 stop you there because when I read that in the 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:06.840 notes, I had to double check it. Blonde hair. 00:03:08.260 --> 00:03:12.319 Bruce Lee's son. For real. It's true. It darkened 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:14.120 as he got older, obviously, to the color we all 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:17.560 recognize. But as a baby. Blonde hair, gray eyes. 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.039 And Bruce absolutely loved it. He was going around 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:22.000 telling people that Brandon was perhaps the only 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.560 Chinese person in the world with those specific 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:27.840 traits. Wow. It played right into Bruce's entire 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.960 worldview. He saw himself as a bridge between 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:32.719 the East and the West, you know, culturally, 00:03:32.900 --> 00:03:35.639 philosophically. And he was his son. literally 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:38.400 embodying that bridge in his DNA. That puts a 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:40.699 lot of symbolic weight on a baby. You are the 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:42.939 bridge between civilizations, kid. No pressure. 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:45.520 No pressure at all. And the physical expectations 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:48.719 started immediately, too. There is this great 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:51.300 anecdote from his grandmother, Grace Ho. She 00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:53.439 claims that by the age of 5 '5", Brandon could 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:56.000 already kick through an inch -thick board. Okay, 00:03:56.020 --> 00:03:57.819 let's look at that critically for a second. Five 00:03:57.819 --> 00:04:00.949 years old. Breaking boards. Is this a proud grandmother 00:04:00.949 --> 00:04:03.229 exaggerating a little or was he actually that 00:04:03.229 --> 00:04:06.330 conditioned from day one? Well, knowing the environment, 00:04:06.469 --> 00:04:08.310 I think it's probably a bit of both, but mostly 00:04:08.310 --> 00:04:11.310 truth. You have to remember, Brandon wasn't just 00:04:11.310 --> 00:04:13.509 living in a house. He was living in a mobile 00:04:13.509 --> 00:04:16.350 dojo. Right. The family split their time between 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:19.490 Hong Kong and the U .S. Brandon was on the set 00:04:19.490 --> 00:04:22.170 of Enter the Dragon. He was hanging off the equipment. 00:04:22.410 --> 00:04:24.850 He was absorbing the mechanics of martial arts 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:27.529 before he could even properly read. It was just 00:04:27.529 --> 00:04:29.829 the air he breathed. But then the air gets sucked 00:04:29.829 --> 00:04:33.569 out of the room. 1973. Brandon is eight years 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:37.189 old. And Bruce dies. Suddenly. And the world 00:04:37.189 --> 00:04:39.870 stops. It does. We don't need to re -litigate 00:04:39.870 --> 00:04:41.709 Bruce's death here. That's a whole other deep 00:04:41.709 --> 00:04:44.370 dive. But we absolutely need to talk about the 00:04:44.370 --> 00:04:46.790 impact on an eight -year -old boy. Losing a father 00:04:46.790 --> 00:04:49.209 is traumatic for anyone. But losing a father 00:04:49.209 --> 00:04:51.449 who is then immediately canonized as a saint, 00:04:51.509 --> 00:04:53.829 that's a different kind of trauma entirely. That 00:04:53.829 --> 00:04:56.550 is the crucial distinction. Suddenly, his dad 00:04:56.550 --> 00:04:58.310 wasn't just the guy who played with him in the 00:04:58.310 --> 00:05:01.910 yard. He was a global icon on T -shirts, posters, 00:05:02.069 --> 00:05:04.550 and statues. Right. He became public property. 00:05:04.870 --> 00:05:07.790 Exactly. And the family moves back to California. 00:05:08.209 --> 00:05:11.439 And Brandon is trying to... process this immense 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:14.360 grief while everyone around him is literally 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:17.860 worshiping the man he lost. And this leads to 00:05:17.860 --> 00:05:20.420 what I call the dojo dilemma. This part of the 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:22.420 research really got to me. So he's 9 or 10 years 00:05:22.420 --> 00:05:25.860 old, he's grieving, and he's sent to train with 00:05:25.860 --> 00:05:28.579 Danny Nassanto. Right. And Danny Nassanto is 00:05:28.579 --> 00:05:30.800 a legend. Bruce's top student, one of the best 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:33.540 martial artists alive. It makes sense on paper. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.019 You think, the son must learn the father's art. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:39.000 It's the logical next step. But Jeff Imada, who 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:41.279 is helping... teach the kids classes at the time. 00:05:41.300 --> 00:05:43.180 It becomes this huge part of Brandon's life later. 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.319 He noticed something was wrong. Brandon couldn't 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:47.839 focus. He was struggling. And it wasn't because 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:49.899 he wasn't athletic. It was the environment. It 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:52.500 was the walls. The dojo was covered in massive 00:05:52.500 --> 00:05:56.180 posters of Bruce Lee. Imagine that. You were 00:05:56.180 --> 00:05:57.740 a little kid. You're trying to learn how to throw 00:05:57.740 --> 00:06:00.240 a kick. And you look up and there's a five foot 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:03.259 poster of your dead dad. doing that same kick 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:06.480 perfectly, like a god. That sounds like a psychological 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:08.779 nightmare. It's like trying to learn to paint 00:06:08.779 --> 00:06:11.459 in a room filled with Rembrandts, and Rembrandt 00:06:11.459 --> 00:06:13.759 was your dad, and everyone expects you to be 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:16.459 the next Rembrandt. Precisely. It was suffocating. 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:18.939 Jeff Amata said it was just too much pressure 00:06:18.939 --> 00:06:21.600 for a child. He was being constantly compared 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:24.600 to a finished product, a legend, while he was 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:26.879 just starting. So what does he do? He does the 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:29.560 only thing a sane teenager would do in that situation. 00:06:29.779 --> 00:06:32.680 He quits. I love this pivot. He just walks away. 00:06:32.819 --> 00:06:35.220 He walks away entirely in his mid -teens, puts 00:06:35.220 --> 00:06:37.779 it all down, and he picks up soccer. Soccer, 00:06:37.879 --> 00:06:41.180 which in the 1970s and 80s in America is about 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:44.180 as far away from cool martial arts action hero 00:06:44.180 --> 00:06:46.939 as you can possibly get. It was a very specific 00:06:46.939 --> 00:06:49.920 rebellion. It was a sport his father didn't dominate. 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:52.740 It was a field where he could just be Brandon, 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:54.959 the guy with the gray eyes who ran fast, not 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:57.139 Little Dragon. Just a normal kid for a minute. 00:06:57.279 --> 00:06:59.800 Or trying to be. And he's a rebellious kid in 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:01.889 general. The source material mentions he was 00:07:01.889 --> 00:07:04.170 actually expelled from Chadwick School, a pretty 00:07:04.170 --> 00:07:06.329 prestigious place, just months before graduation. 00:07:06.769 --> 00:07:09.350 What did he get expelled for, do we know? General 00:07:09.350 --> 00:07:13.209 misbehavior. Acting out. The details are a bit 00:07:13.209 --> 00:07:16.209 fuzzy, but it fits the profile. He was angry. 00:07:16.350 --> 00:07:18.769 He was smart, but he was angry. He eventually 00:07:18.769 --> 00:07:21.550 had to get his GED from Miralest High. But that 00:07:21.550 --> 00:07:23.939 break? That step away from the dojo and into 00:07:23.939 --> 00:07:25.839 the soccer field and eventually into trouble 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:28.779 was necessary. He needed to figure out who he 00:07:28.779 --> 00:07:31.180 was in a vacuum. And that vacuum eventually filled 00:07:31.180 --> 00:07:33.980 up with acting. Right. But not action movies. 00:07:34.139 --> 00:07:36.939 He went to Emerson College in Boston. He went 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:39.420 to the Lou Strasberg Institute in New York. He 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:42.439 wanted to be a serious thespian. He did. He joined 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:44.160 the Eric Morris American New Theater. He was 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:46.120 studying the craft. He wanted to do Shakespeare. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:48.699 He wanted to do serious drama. He wanted to be 00:07:48.699 --> 00:07:51.459 recognized for his ability to emote, not his 00:07:51.459 --> 00:07:54.439 ability to punch. But Hollywood is a machine. 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:57.560 And the machine saw the name Lee, and it had 00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:00.259 other ideas. Very different ideas. Which brings 00:08:00.259 --> 00:08:03.100 us to the most ironic and, frankly, kind of painful 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:07.160 start to a career I can imagine. 1986, his first 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.220 credited role. Oh, this is just... Kung Fu. The 00:08:10.220 --> 00:08:11.879 movie, the irony is so thick you could cut it 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:14.199 with a knife. It's unbelievable. For some of 00:08:14.199 --> 00:08:15.879 our younger listeners who might not know, you 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:17.759 have to explain the context of the Kung Fu TV 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.259 show and why this casting was so loaded. Okay, 00:08:20.339 --> 00:08:23.319 so back in the early 70s, Bruce Lee pitches a 00:08:23.319 --> 00:08:26.970 show to Warner Bros. called The Warrior. The 00:08:26.970 --> 00:08:30.269 concept. A Chinese martial artist wandering the 00:08:30.269 --> 00:08:33.049 American Old West. His idea. His idea. His concept. 00:08:33.250 --> 00:08:36.250 The studio loved the concept, reworked it, and 00:08:36.250 --> 00:08:38.789 called it Kung Fu. But they didn't cast Bruce 00:08:38.789 --> 00:08:41.250 Lee. They told him he was too Chinese for the 00:08:41.250 --> 00:08:44.529 American audience. Instead, they cast David Carradine, 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:48.110 a white actor, and had him play Kwai Chan Kane, 00:08:48.389 --> 00:08:51.659 a half -Chinese monk. It was a massive sore point 00:08:51.659 --> 00:08:54.299 for Bruce and his entire community. It was seen 00:08:54.299 --> 00:08:56.679 as a theft of his creative idea. So Bruce gets 00:08:56.679 --> 00:08:58.940 passed over. The show becomes a huge hit with 00:08:58.940 --> 00:09:01.379 a white guy in the lead. Fast forward to 1986. 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:04.659 They're making a TV movie reunion and they call 00:09:04.659 --> 00:09:07.460 Brandon. And they cast Brandon to play the illegitimate 00:09:07.460 --> 00:09:10.279 son of David Carradine's character. I mean, how 00:09:10.279 --> 00:09:12.379 did he accept that? That feels like such a slap 00:09:12.379 --> 00:09:14.320 in the face. Hey, come play the son of the guy 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:16.240 who took your dad's job. He didn't want to do 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:18.909 it initially. He really didn't. Jeff Amato was 00:09:18.909 --> 00:09:21.049 working stunts on that film, and he said Brandon 00:09:21.049 --> 00:09:24.289 was actively avoiding it. But, and this shows 00:09:24.289 --> 00:09:26.549 a level of maturity that is pretty impressive 00:09:26.549 --> 00:09:29.309 for a 21 -year -old, he eventually rationalized 00:09:29.309 --> 00:09:31.549 it. He found a way to make it make sense. He 00:09:31.549 --> 00:09:34.450 framed it as a form of justice. Justice. How 00:09:34.450 --> 00:09:38.190 so? Yeah. He felt like by taking the role, he 00:09:38.190 --> 00:09:41.149 was reclaiming the space that was denied to his 00:09:41.149 --> 00:09:44.340 father. He was putting a real Lee into the franchise 00:09:44.340 --> 00:09:46.299 that should have been theirs to begin with. That's 00:09:46.299 --> 00:09:48.440 a very pragmatic way to look at it. I'm going 00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:50.080 to take the check and I'm going to take the spotlight 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:53.879 back. Exactly. And honestly, he's good in it. 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:57.139 He has this raw intensity. But it trapped him. 00:09:57.419 --> 00:09:59.720 The second he threw that first punch on camera, 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:02.580 the serious actor from New York dream was put 00:10:02.580 --> 00:10:05.039 on hold and the action star expectation just 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:07.080 took over. It was inevitable. So he went to Hong 00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:09.519 Kong next. He made a film called Legacy of Rage. 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:11.700 Which was his only Hong Kong film, right? His 00:10:11.700 --> 00:10:15.120 one and only. Shot in Cantonese. And he had to 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:17.000 learn all the Cantonese phonetically because 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.240 he wasn't fluent, which is incredibly difficult. 00:10:19.460 --> 00:10:22.200 He clashed with the director, Ronnie Yu. It was 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:24.399 a really tough shoot for him. So the experience 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:27.539 wasn't great, but how was the movie? The movie? 00:10:28.059 --> 00:10:30.480 It's actually really solid. It was a hit in Japan, 00:10:30.659 --> 00:10:33.460 got nominated for a Hong Kong Film Award. He 00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:35.500 proved he could carry a Hong Kong action movie, 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:37.820 no question. But he didn't stay there. He came 00:10:37.820 --> 00:10:39.840 back to the States. And this is where we enter 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:42.700 what the notes call the B -movie trenches. Oh, 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.399 the trenches. The late 80s were a weird time 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:48.289 for action movies. The video store boom was happening, 00:10:48.409 --> 00:10:50.570 right? Yeah. And Brandon got caught in that direct 00:10:50.570 --> 00:10:52.970 -to -video grinder. We have to talk about Laser 00:10:52.970 --> 00:10:55.090 Mission. We absolutely have to talk about Laser 00:10:55.090 --> 00:10:58.629 Mission. 1990, filmed in Namibia, of all places, 00:10:58.789 --> 00:11:02.049 Brandon plays a mercenary named, wait for it, 00:11:02.149 --> 00:11:05.350 Michael Gold. Michael Gold! That sounds like 00:11:05.350 --> 00:11:07.470 a character name generated by an algorithm fed 00:11:07.470 --> 00:11:09.649 nothing but 80s action scripts. It's perfect. 00:11:09.909 --> 00:11:13.029 It is the most generic name possible. And the 00:11:13.029 --> 00:11:17.070 movie is. Well, it's something. There are scenes 00:11:17.070 --> 00:11:18.970 where he's running around the desert in a bright 00:11:18.970 --> 00:11:22.090 blue tank top fighting guys in slow motion with 00:11:22.090 --> 00:11:25.110 this synthesizer soundtrack just blaring. It's 00:11:25.110 --> 00:11:28.330 peak B movie. It's cheesy. It's low budget. It's 00:11:28.330 --> 00:11:30.840 kind of amazing in its own way. But see, I watched 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:33.039 a clip of this recently in prep for this. And 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:35.559 what stands out is that even in this objectively 00:11:35.559 --> 00:11:39.200 terrible movie, Brandon is incredibly charming. 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:41.299 He's doing this little smirk. He's adding these 00:11:41.299 --> 00:11:44.240 little physical flourishes. He is so much better 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:46.519 than the material. That was always the case. 00:11:46.700 --> 00:11:50.899 Even in the failed TV pilot, Kung Fu, the next 00:11:50.899 --> 00:11:52.980 generation. Another Kung Fu thing. Yeah, where 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:55.220 he played the great grandson, yet another generational 00:11:55.220 --> 00:11:57.460 burden. He had a charisma that just popped off 00:11:57.460 --> 00:11:59.940 the screen. But he was frustrated. He was paying 00:11:59.940 --> 00:12:01.940 his dues, but he felt like he was paying them 00:12:01.940 --> 00:12:03.879 in a currency he didn't want to use. He was the 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:06.059 son. He wasn't Brandon. And that frustration, 00:12:06.220 --> 00:12:09.860 it seems, hits a boiling point around 1991. Because 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:11.820 he gets an offer that would have made him a superstar 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:13.799 overnight, but it would have cost him his soul. 00:12:14.039 --> 00:12:17.220 The biopic, Universal Pictures, is gearing up 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:21.500 to make Dragon. The Bruce Lee story. Big budget. 00:12:23.059 --> 00:12:25.179 Massive marketing campaign planned. And they 00:12:25.179 --> 00:12:27.679 come to Brandon and say, We want you to play 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:30.419 Bruce. This is the ultimate test, isn't it? If 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:33.080 he takes this role, he is rich, he is famous, 00:12:33.299 --> 00:12:37.220 but he is forever just Bruce Lee's impersonator. 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:40.000 He never gets out of the shadow. Exactly. It's 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.720 the final trap. Imagine the psychological minefield. 00:12:42.820 --> 00:12:45.360 Here, put on your dead father's clothes, reenact 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:47.580 his romance with your mother, reenact the fights 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:49.759 that made him famous. It's just morbid. Did he 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:52.289 even hesitate? Not really. He turned it down 00:12:52.289 --> 00:12:55.090 flat. He said publicly it was awkward and strange 00:12:55.090 --> 00:12:57.210 to even think about. He wanted to be his own 00:12:57.210 --> 00:12:59.470 man. But there's a detail in the production notes 00:12:59.470 --> 00:13:02.690 here that made my jaw drop. The producer, Raffaella 00:13:02.690 --> 00:13:05.490 De Laurentiis. Yeah. She was actually relieved 00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:08.169 he said no. Why would she be relieved? It seems 00:13:08.169 --> 00:13:10.509 like perfect casting. She went on record saying 00:13:10.509 --> 00:13:12.789 she didn't think Brandon looked Chinese enough. 00:13:13.090 --> 00:13:15.490 You're kidding me. Nope. She said she would have 00:13:15.490 --> 00:13:17.210 refused to work on the project if they had to 00:13:17.210 --> 00:13:19.909 use makeup to make him look more Asian to play 00:13:19.909 --> 00:13:24.179 his own father. That is wow. I mean, on one hand, 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:26.980 I sort of get the visual continuity issue they're 00:13:26.980 --> 00:13:28.480 worried about. But on the other hand, telling 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:30.840 Bruce Lee's son he isn't Chinese enough to play 00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:33.480 Bruce Lee, that is a special kind of Hollywood 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:36.220 absurdity. It is. It's mind boggling. But Brandon 00:13:36.220 --> 00:13:38.779 handled it with so much grace. Yeah. The role 00:13:38.779 --> 00:13:42.480 went to Jason Scott Lee, no relation. And Brandon 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:44.769 actually met with Jason. He gave him his blessing. 00:13:44.909 --> 00:13:46.970 That's very classy. And he gave him this incredible 00:13:46.970 --> 00:13:50.070 piece of advice. He told Jason, do not treat 00:13:50.070 --> 00:13:52.970 Bruce like a god. Treat him as a man with a temper 00:13:52.970 --> 00:13:56.169 who hated mediocrity. I love that. He's deconstructing 00:13:56.169 --> 00:13:57.830 the myth for the guy who is about to play the 00:13:57.830 --> 00:13:59.870 myth. It shows how much Brandon had processed 00:13:59.870 --> 00:14:02.549 his father's memory. He wasn't bitter. He was 00:14:02.549 --> 00:14:05.009 just clear -eyed. And turning down that role 00:14:05.009 --> 00:14:06.789 was the best thing he could have done for his 00:14:06.789 --> 00:14:09.090 career because it forced him to find his own 00:14:09.090 --> 00:14:11.220 vehicle. And that vehicle starts to take shape 00:14:11.220 --> 00:14:14.419 with Showdown in Little Tokyo. 1991, Warner Bros. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:17.139 He's starring opposite Dolph Lundgren. This is 00:14:17.139 --> 00:14:19.700 a buddy cat movie on steroids. It's a cult classic 00:14:19.700 --> 00:14:21.759 now. It's completely ridiculous, but it's so 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:24.779 much fun. It is. And it was his first big studio 00:14:24.779 --> 00:14:27.039 lead. But the reviews at the time were really 00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:29.940 unkind. Critics just dismissed it as mindless 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:33.460 violence. However, it got his foot in the door 00:14:33.460 --> 00:14:36.820 at the major studios. Which leads to the real 00:14:36.820 --> 00:14:39.080 turning point for him. Rapid Fire. Rapid Fire 00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:41.679 in 1992. Now, Rapid Fire is interesting because 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:44.879 this is where we see Brandon actually taking 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:47.379 the wheel creatively. He wasn't just a hired 00:14:47.379 --> 00:14:49.980 gun anymore. Right. He signed a multi -picture 00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:53.559 deal with 20th Century Fox. And he was heavily 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:55.460 involved in the story development from the jump. 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:58.039 He looked at the original script for Rapid Fire 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:00.519 and he saw a generic action movie. And he basically 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:02.679 said, no, let's make this real. How so? What 00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:05.340 did he change? Well, the character Jake Lowe 00:15:05.340 --> 00:15:08.039 is a student who witnesses a murder and gets 00:15:08.039 --> 00:15:10.759 pulled into this mob war. But the original script 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:14.200 had him as this gung -ho Joe action hero. Brandon 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:16.240 fought to make him reluctant. He wanted Jake 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.840 to be sarcastic and annoyed and scared. A normal 00:15:18.840 --> 00:15:21.019 person's reaction. Exactly. He wanted him to 00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:22.539 be a normal guy who just happened to be really 00:15:22.539 --> 00:15:24.799 good at fighting, not some superhero. That makes 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:26.919 the character so much more relatable. And he 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:30.090 leaned into the trauma. There was a plot point 00:15:30.090 --> 00:15:34.610 where Jake Lowe has lost his father. Brandon 00:15:34.610 --> 00:15:37.190 connected with that deeply. Jeff Amato was the 00:15:37.190 --> 00:15:39.450 stunt coordinator again, and he remembers seeing 00:15:39.450 --> 00:15:42.450 Brandon on set, sitting in his chair, quietly 00:15:42.450 --> 00:15:44.450 holding a book of his father's philosophical 00:15:44.450 --> 00:15:48.149 writings. On set? While filming? Yeah. Before 00:15:48.149 --> 00:15:50.789 a big emotional scene. He was using his father's 00:15:50.789 --> 00:15:53.090 own words to emotionally prepare for the scene 00:15:53.090 --> 00:15:55.269 where his character talks about his dead dad. 00:15:55.509 --> 00:15:57.590 He was mining his own grief for the performance. 00:15:57.950 --> 00:16:00.389 That's incredibly brave. That's taking the thing 00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:02.710 that hurts you the most and turning it into art. 00:16:02.870 --> 00:16:05.690 It is. And the action changed, too. In Rapid 00:16:05.690 --> 00:16:07.750 Fire, the fighting isn't just Bruce Lee copies. 00:16:08.029 --> 00:16:10.129 He and Amada are credited on the choreography 00:16:10.129 --> 00:16:13.669 together. They used Jeet Kune Do concepts. But 00:16:13.669 --> 00:16:16.059 Brandon put his own spin on it. He wasn't trying 00:16:16.059 --> 00:16:18.360 to move exactly like Bruce anymore. He was moving 00:16:18.360 --> 00:16:20.200 like Brandon. This feels like the synthesis. 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:22.700 He's not running from the martial arts, you know, 00:16:22.740 --> 00:16:25.159 like the soccer days. But he's not letting them 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:27.399 define him completely either. He's using them 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:30.500 as a tool for his acting. Exactly. And that brings 00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:32.600 us to his philosophy. Because you can't be a 00:16:32.600 --> 00:16:34.919 Lee without having a philosophy. It just comes 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:37.220 with the territory. We found some really interesting 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:39.600 notes on how his training had evolved by the 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:42.659 early 90s. He wasn't just punching bags in a 00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:45.440 gym. No, he had returned to training with Dan 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:48.480 and Asanko in the 80s, but his approach was so 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:51.360 analytical. He was studying Muay Thai, Kali, 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:54.299 Silat, but he was also studying the aesthetics 00:16:54.299 --> 00:16:57.179 of violence. He would bring a video camera to 00:16:57.179 --> 00:17:00.379 the dojo of video camera in the late 80s. That's 00:17:00.379 --> 00:17:02.659 like a giant camcorder on your shoulder. Yeah, 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.160 a heavy piece of equipment. He would film himself 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:06.960 training, then he would go home and watch it 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.519 back to see which moves looked best on a 2D screen 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:12.000 versus what was actually effective in a real 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:14.250 fight. He was dissecting the difference between 00:17:14.250 --> 00:17:16.970 fighting and movie fighting. He was directing 00:17:16.970 --> 00:17:18.950 himself before he was ever a director. He was, 00:17:19.009 --> 00:17:20.910 and when people asked him about Jeet Kune Do, 00:17:21.009 --> 00:17:23.690 he had this very nuanced, very intelligent take. 00:17:23.869 --> 00:17:26.430 He refused to say he practiced Jeet Kune Do. 00:17:26.529 --> 00:17:29.269 He said JKD was his father's personal expression 00:17:29.269 --> 00:17:31.490 of truth, so Brandon practiced his own interpretation 00:17:31.490 --> 00:17:34.309 of it. So it's not a style to be copied, it's 00:17:34.309 --> 00:17:36.630 a principle to be lived. That's what he believed, 00:17:36.829 --> 00:17:39.970 that martial arts was ultimately about self -discovery. 00:17:40.509 --> 00:17:42.930 There is that quote about barriers. I think you 00:17:42.930 --> 00:17:45.250 called it the barrier theory. This is my favorite 00:17:45.250 --> 00:17:48.450 insight of his. It's so profound. He said, every 00:17:48.450 --> 00:17:51.029 time you come up against a true barrier to your 00:17:51.029 --> 00:17:54.710 progress, you are a child again. You are a child 00:17:54.710 --> 00:17:57.509 again. What did he mean by that? He meant that 00:17:57.509 --> 00:17:59.910 when you hit a limit, whether it's a physical 00:17:59.910 --> 00:18:01.769 weight you can't lift or an acting scene you 00:18:01.769 --> 00:18:04.150 can't crack or a philosophical problem you can't 00:18:04.150 --> 00:18:07.150 solve, you are forced into a state of not knowing. 00:18:07.789 --> 00:18:09.930 You have to be humble. You have to learn. You're 00:18:09.930 --> 00:18:12.529 a beginner. You're a beginner again. He said 00:18:12.529 --> 00:18:14.470 most people hate that feeling, so they stop. 00:18:15.170 --> 00:18:18.450 They only do what they are already good at. But 00:18:18.450 --> 00:18:21.089 Brandon loved the barrier. He wanted to be a 00:18:21.089 --> 00:18:23.490 beginner. He wanted to break through. That mindset 00:18:23.490 --> 00:18:26.089 is exactly what led him to The Crow. Because 00:18:26.089 --> 00:18:28.490 The Crow was a massive barrier. It was a role 00:18:28.490 --> 00:18:31.119 unlike anything he had ever done. It was a total 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:34.319 departure. 1993, based on the comic by James 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:36.460 O 'Barr. It's dark, it's gothic, it's supernatural. 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:40.420 Brandon plays Eric Draven, a rock musician who 00:18:40.420 --> 00:18:42.680 is brutally murdered and comes back from the 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:45.539 dead to avenge his and his fiance's deaths. And 00:18:45.539 --> 00:18:47.339 the preparation for this, I mean, we talk about 00:18:47.339 --> 00:18:49.299 method acting with guys like Daniel Day -Lewis 00:18:49.299 --> 00:18:52.170 or Christian Bale, but... Brandon was right there 00:18:52.170 --> 00:18:54.630 with them on this one. He was all in. First, 00:18:54.710 --> 00:18:56.789 the physical transformation. He dropped a ton 00:18:56.789 --> 00:18:58.650 of weight. He didn't want to look like the buff 00:18:58.650 --> 00:19:01.049 action hero from Showdown in Little Tokyo. He 00:19:01.049 --> 00:19:03.069 wanted to look like a starving dead rock star. 00:19:03.230 --> 00:19:06.349 Gaunt. Exactly. He weighed his food. He did endless 00:19:06.349 --> 00:19:09.269 cardio to get that lean, almost emaciated look. 00:19:09.490 --> 00:19:11.250 And the ice. You have to tell the listeners about 00:19:11.250 --> 00:19:14.029 the ice. This is just wild. For the resurrection 00:19:14.029 --> 00:19:16.890 scene, where Eric Draven crawls out of his muddy 00:19:16.890 --> 00:19:20.009 grave, it was freezing cold on set in Wilmington, 00:19:20.029 --> 00:19:22.680 North Carolina. But Brandon wanted to make sure 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:24.660 the physical shock of coming back to life looked 00:19:24.660 --> 00:19:28.079 real. So he didn't just act cold. No. Before 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.200 the take, he had the crew bring him bags of ice 00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:32.740 from a local store, and he submerged himself 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:35.700 in them. He sat in an ice bath right before they 00:19:35.700 --> 00:19:38.019 started rolling. To lower his body temperature, 00:19:38.099 --> 00:19:41.299 to make himself shiver uncontrollably, to literally 00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:44.259 feel the pain of the cold seeping into his bones. 00:19:44.700 --> 00:19:46.640 So when you see him shivering in that scene, 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:50.460 He's not acting. He is freezing to death. That 00:19:50.460 --> 00:19:53.440 is dedication on another level. But it also speaks 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:56.119 to how badly he wanted this to work. He wasn't 00:19:56.119 --> 00:19:58.779 just phoning it in. Not at all. He saw this as 00:19:58.779 --> 00:20:00.980 his hamlet. This was his chance to prove he was 00:20:00.980 --> 00:20:03.339 more than an action guy. And the movement choices. 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:06.500 He and Jeff Amata made a conscious decision. 00:20:06.990 --> 00:20:08.849 That Eric Draven shouldn't fight like a martial 00:20:08.849 --> 00:20:11.069 artist. Why not? Draven is a guitarist, not a 00:20:11.069 --> 00:20:13.630 ninja. So they incorporated aerobics. They incorporated 00:20:13.630 --> 00:20:17.029 these strange mime -like movements. If you watch 00:20:17.029 --> 00:20:19.529 the movie, he moves like a ghost or a marionette 00:20:19.529 --> 00:20:22.170 on strings. It's incredibly unsettling. Brilliant. 00:20:22.269 --> 00:20:24.789 He took the action hero handbook and just threw 00:20:24.789 --> 00:20:26.710 it out the window. Everything was aligning. He 00:20:26.710 --> 00:20:28.730 was doing the best work of his life. He was deeply 00:20:28.730 --> 00:20:31.329 in love, engaged to Eliza Hutton. They were planning 00:20:31.329 --> 00:20:35.210 to get married in Mexico on April 17, 1993, just 00:20:35.210 --> 00:20:37.670 a week after filming was supposed to wrap. The 00:20:37.670 --> 00:20:40.210 shoot was almost over. And then came March 31. 00:20:40.650 --> 00:20:43.130 The day it all fell apart. I want to slow down 00:20:43.130 --> 00:20:46.119 here. Because for years, for decades, really, 00:20:46.259 --> 00:20:48.279 I heard the rumors. It was the Chinese mafia. 00:20:48.299 --> 00:20:51.099 It was a family curse. It was a real bullet swapped 00:20:51.099 --> 00:20:54.299 in by an assassin. The Internet loves a conspiracy. 00:20:54.539 --> 00:20:56.940 Loves it. But the reality, the forensic reality, 00:20:57.039 --> 00:21:00.660 is so much more tragic because it was preventable. 00:21:00.660 --> 00:21:03.140 It wasn't malice. It was negligence. It was a 00:21:03.140 --> 00:21:06.440 chain of incompetence, a series of small, stupid 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:09.700 mistakes that added up to a catastrophe. And 00:21:09.700 --> 00:21:11.720 to understand it, we have to look at the mechanics 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:14.720 of the gun. This wasn't a single mistake on the 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.980 night of the accident. It was a two -part failure. 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:19.099 Okay, so walk us through it step by step. What 00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:21.700 happened? Okay. Phase one happens about two weeks 00:21:21.700 --> 00:21:24.099 before the accident. The production is filming 00:21:24.099 --> 00:21:26.519 a close -up scene where a gun is pointed at the 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:29.539 camera. For this kind of shot, they need the 00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:31.980 gun to look fully loaded. They needed to see 00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:34.039 the bullet tips in the cylinder. Right, because 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:36.440 an empty gun or a gun with blanks looks different 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:40.009 on a close -up. Exactly. Normally, you use commercially 00:21:40.009 --> 00:21:42.970 made dummy rounds for this. A dummy round looks 00:21:42.970 --> 00:21:45.670 like a real bullet, but it has no primer and 00:21:45.670 --> 00:21:47.769 no gunpowder. It's completely inert. It's just 00:21:47.769 --> 00:21:50.869 a piece of metal. Safe. Totally safe. But the 00:21:50.869 --> 00:21:52.990 production was running behind schedule, and they 00:21:52.990 --> 00:21:55.670 were cutting costs. And the source material indicates 00:21:55.670 --> 00:21:57.990 the prop department decided to make their own 00:21:57.990 --> 00:22:00.789 dummy rounds to save time. They made their own. 00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:03.440 That sounds like a major red flag already. A 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:06.539 huge red flag. They took real cartridges, pulled 00:22:06.539 --> 00:22:09.559 the bullets out with pliers, dumped out the gunpowder, 00:22:09.559 --> 00:22:12.940 and then put the bullets back in. But, and here's 00:22:12.940 --> 00:22:16.180 the first fatal error, they left the live primer 00:22:16.180 --> 00:22:19.160 in the base of the cartridge. The primer is the 00:22:19.160 --> 00:22:21.119 little cap on the bottom that sparks when the 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:23.519 hammer hits it? Correct. It has a tiny amount 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:25.980 of explosive force, just enough to make a pop. 00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:28.940 Oh. So during that earlier filming session, someone 00:22:28.940 --> 00:22:30.819 on set pulled the trigger on one of these homemade 00:22:30.819 --> 00:22:33.339 dummy rounds. The primer went off pop. But there's 00:22:33.339 --> 00:22:35.220 no gunpowder, so the bullet doesn't fly out of 00:22:35.220 --> 00:22:38.539 the barrel. Not fully. But the small force of 00:22:38.539 --> 00:22:41.160 that primer was just enough to push the bullet 00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:43.720 out of its casing and shove it about an inch 00:22:43.720 --> 00:22:47.400 into the barrel of the gun. It got stuck. A squib 00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:49.440 load. That's the technical term, right? A squib 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:51.980 load. The bullet is now lodged in the barrel. 00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:55.160 But because there was no big bang, no smoke, 00:22:55.220 --> 00:22:57.380 no recoil, nobody checked the barrel. They just 00:22:57.380 --> 00:23:00.119 put the gun away. So for two weeks, that revolver 00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:02.319 is sitting in the prop room with a bullet blocking 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:05.420 the barrel and nobody knows. Exactly. Now fast 00:23:05.420 --> 00:23:08.960 forward to phase two, March 31st. The scene they're 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:10.940 filming is the one where Eric Draven is killed 00:23:10.940 --> 00:23:14.240 in the flashback. The actor Michael Massey, playing 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:16.470 the character Fun Boy, has to shoot Brandon. 00:23:16.950 --> 00:23:18.930 For this scene, they need noise and a muzzle 00:23:18.930 --> 00:23:21.470 flash, so they use blanks. And a blank is just 00:23:21.470 --> 00:23:23.890 a cartridge with gunpowder and a primer. Right. 00:23:23.950 --> 00:23:26.710 No actual bullet. Right. The end is either crimped 00:23:26.710 --> 00:23:28.930 or has a cardboard wad. It explodes, makes a 00:23:28.930 --> 00:23:31.869 bang, but nothing is supposed to shoot out. Except... 00:23:31.869 --> 00:23:34.210 Except they loaded a full -power blank into the 00:23:34.210 --> 00:23:36.509 same gun that had the bullet from two weeks ago 00:23:36.509 --> 00:23:39.049 stuck in the barrel. Oh, God. It's like a makeshift 00:23:39.049 --> 00:23:42.170 rifle at that point. It's a loaded weapon. So 00:23:42.170 --> 00:23:44.019 when Michael Massey pulled the trigger... The 00:23:44.019 --> 00:23:46.420 explosion of the blank slammed into the back 00:23:46.420 --> 00:23:48.839 of that lodged bullet. It propelled that bullet 00:23:48.839 --> 00:23:51.059 out of the barrel with almost the same velocity 00:23:51.059 --> 00:23:54.779 as a live round. So physically, it became a real 00:23:54.779 --> 00:23:57.539 gunshot? Physically, it was identical to a real 00:23:57.539 --> 00:23:59.859 gunshot. Where was the armorer? Isn't there supposed 00:23:59.859 --> 00:24:02.440 to be a weapons expert on set checking the barrel 00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:05.779 before and after every single take? That is the 00:24:05.779 --> 00:24:08.319 core of the tragedy. The film had a firearms 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:11.000 consultant, but due to budget and schedule constraints, 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:14.359 he had been sent home early that night. The gun 00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:16.579 was being handled by the prop master, who was 00:24:16.579 --> 00:24:19.259 not a firearms expert. Nobody checked the barrel. 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:22.119 That is just infuriating. They're saving a few 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:24.319 hundred dollars on an expert's salary and it 00:24:24.319 --> 00:24:26.859 costs a man his life. It's negligence. Plain 00:24:26.859 --> 00:24:29.720 and simple. So the cameras roll. Michael Massey 00:24:29.720 --> 00:24:32.440 fires the gun. Brandon falls backward. And the 00:24:32.440 --> 00:24:35.720 crew, they thought he was acting. They did. The 00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:37.160 script actually said he was supposed to fall 00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:39.460 forward onto a table. He fell back onto the floor. 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:42.880 But Brandon was known for improvisation. He was 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:45.000 known for being intense. So the director yells, 00:24:45.099 --> 00:24:47.839 cut, and for a few seconds, nobody moves. They 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:49.779 think he's just staying in character. How long 00:24:49.779 --> 00:24:51.680 until they knew something was horribly wrong? 00:24:52.140 --> 00:24:54.480 Jeff Hamada was there. He walked over to him. 00:24:54.519 --> 00:24:57.400 He saw Brandon breathing heavily, this rhythmic, 00:24:57.539 --> 00:25:01.579 gasping breath. But he wasn't responding. Then 00:25:01.579 --> 00:25:04.000 the on -set medic, Clyde Basie, came over and 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.660 checked him. He found a pulse. But here's the 00:25:06.660 --> 00:25:09.160 scary thing. There was almost no external bleeding. 00:25:09.529 --> 00:25:12.170 Really? From a gunshot? The bullet entered his 00:25:12.170 --> 00:25:14.750 abdomen and did massive internal damage, lodging 00:25:14.750 --> 00:25:17.150 near his spine. From the outside, it just looked 00:25:17.150 --> 00:25:19.269 like a small puncture wound. So they didn't realize 00:25:19.269 --> 00:25:21.910 the severity of it immediately? Not until his 00:25:21.910 --> 00:25:24.450 pulse started to fade a few minutes later. They 00:25:24.450 --> 00:25:26.750 rushed him to the hospital in Wilmington. Surgeons 00:25:26.750 --> 00:25:29.230 worked on him for six hours. They pumped gallons 00:25:29.230 --> 00:25:31.750 and gallons of blood into him. But the damage 00:25:31.750 --> 00:25:34.190 to the major arteries was too catastrophic. He 00:25:34.190 --> 00:25:36.849 was pronounced dead at 1 .03 p .m. the next day. 00:25:37.109 --> 00:25:41.319 28 years old. 28. Just starting. I can't even 00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:43.759 begin to imagine what that set felt like. And 00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:45.819 poor Michael Massey, he was the one who pulled 00:25:45.819 --> 00:25:48.799 the trigger. Massey was devastated, utterly destroyed. 00:25:49.140 --> 00:25:51.799 He took a year off from acting immediately. He 00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:53.720 never watched the film. He said in interviews 00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:56.220 years later that he still had nightmares about 00:25:56.220 --> 00:25:58.900 it. It wasn't his fault, not in any legal or 00:25:58.900 --> 00:26:01.539 moral sense, but he carried that burden for the 00:26:01.539 --> 00:26:03.960 rest of his life. So the production shuts down, 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:06.960 the star is dead, and they have eight days of 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:10.180 filming left. This brings up a huge ethical question. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:13.640 Do you finish the movie? It was debated heavily. 00:26:13.799 --> 00:26:16.960 The studio, Paramount, was ready to scrap it, 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:18.940 take the insurance payout, and just bury the 00:26:18.940 --> 00:26:21.619 film. I can see why. It feels ghoulish to continue. 00:26:21.859 --> 00:26:26.019 It does. But Eliza Hutton, his fiancée, and Lindley 00:26:26.019 --> 00:26:28.440 Cadwell, his mother, they intervened. They said 00:26:28.440 --> 00:26:30.680 Brandon was so proud of this performance, he 00:26:30.680 --> 00:26:32.750 believed it was his best work. They said he would 00:26:32.750 --> 00:26:34.609 have wanted it to be seen. So how did they do 00:26:34.609 --> 00:26:37.450 it? This was 1993. We didn't have the kind of 00:26:37.450 --> 00:26:40.170 CGI we have now. No deep fakes. They were basically 00:26:40.170 --> 00:26:43.190 inventing the technology as they went. They used 00:26:43.190 --> 00:26:46.289 Brandon Stunt Doubles, a guy named Chad Stahelski, 00:26:46.450 --> 00:26:48.809 and another named Jeff Katienti. Wait, wait. 00:26:48.869 --> 00:26:51.869 Chad Stahelski, as in the director of the John 00:26:51.869 --> 00:26:55.150 Wick movies? The very same. He was Brandon Stunt 00:26:55.150 --> 00:26:57.579 Double and a good friend. He knew Brandon's movement 00:26:57.579 --> 00:27:00.099 perfectly, so they filmed the remaining scenes 00:27:00.099 --> 00:27:02.779 with Chad, often in shadow or from the back. 00:27:03.359 --> 00:27:05.880 And for a few key shots, they used very early, 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:09.299 very expensive digital compositing to paste Brandon's 00:27:09.299 --> 00:27:11.920 face from unused footage onto the double's body. 00:27:12.099 --> 00:27:14.319 That must have cost a fortune. It cost them an 00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:16.799 extra $8 million to do, but they finished the 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:18.920 film. And when it came out, I remember the atmosphere. 00:27:19.160 --> 00:27:21.299 It wasn't just a movie release. It felt like 00:27:21.299 --> 00:27:23.660 a public wake. It opened at number one, made 00:27:23.660 --> 00:27:27.460 over $50 million at the box office. But the reviews. 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:30.460 That's what really matters. Critics didn't just 00:27:30.460 --> 00:27:32.960 pity him. They were genuinely blown away by the 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:35.519 performance. The Washington Post said he haunts 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:38.500 every frame. Roger Ebert's review is the one 00:27:38.500 --> 00:27:40.200 that really sticks with me. What did Ebert say? 00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:43.240 Roger Ebert, who was famously tough on action 00:27:43.240 --> 00:27:47.220 movies, wrote that The Crow was Brandon's best 00:27:47.220 --> 00:27:50.500 film. And then he said something that I think 00:27:50.500 --> 00:27:52.359 Brandon had been waiting his whole life to hear 00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:55.160 someone say. He said it was a better film than 00:27:55.160 --> 00:27:58.579 any of his father's films. Wow. That is the validation. 00:27:58.619 --> 00:28:00.960 That is the mountain finally climbed. He did 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:02.920 it on his own term. And he never got to read 00:28:02.920 --> 00:28:05.519 it. That is just heartbreaking. He finally steps 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:07.680 out of the shadow. He finally creates this singular 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:10.240 piece of art that stands completely on its own. 00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:13.119 And he's gone. It cemented him as a legend, but 00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:15.859 a tragic one. We never got to see him do a romantic 00:28:15.859 --> 00:28:18.079 comedy. We never got to see him play a villain 00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:21.480 or do Shakespeare. We just have this one perfect 00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:24.779 gothic performance frozen in time. Before we 00:28:24.779 --> 00:28:26.519 wrap up, I want to talk about the wedding that 00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:28.359 never happened because there is a detail about 00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:30.279 the invitations that gave me chills when I read 00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:33.119 it. The quote. The quote. He and Eliza had chosen 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:35.119 a passage from a book to print on their wedding 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:38.740 invitations. And now that same passage is carved 00:28:38.740 --> 00:28:40.960 on his tombstone in Seattle, right next to his 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:43.440 father. It's from Paul Bowles' novel, The Sheltering 00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:47.240 Sky. Brandon loved this book. And in the context 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:49.960 of his death, dying at 28, thinking he had decades 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:52.950 left, the words are just haunting. You have it 00:28:52.950 --> 00:28:54.650 there. I think you should read it for us. I do, 00:28:54.789 --> 00:28:57.690 it says. Because we don't know when we will die, 00:28:57.809 --> 00:29:00.589 we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. 00:29:01.170 --> 00:29:02.930 Yet everything happens only a certain number 00:29:02.930 --> 00:29:05.309 of times, and a very small number, really. How 00:29:05.309 --> 00:29:07.549 many more times will you remember a certain afternoon 00:29:07.549 --> 00:29:10.190 of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply 00:29:10.190 --> 00:29:12.309 a part of your being that you can't even conceive 00:29:12.309 --> 00:29:14.670 of your life without it? Perhaps four or five 00:29:14.670 --> 00:29:17.049 times more, perhaps not even that. How many more 00:29:17.049 --> 00:29:19.470 times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 00:29:19.470 --> 00:29:23.109 20. And yet... It all seems limitless. And yet 00:29:23.109 --> 00:29:25.529 it all seems limitless. He thought it was limitless. 00:29:25.549 --> 00:29:27.849 He had the career, the girl, the philosophy all 00:29:27.849 --> 00:29:30.210 figured out. And it was gone in a literal flash. 00:29:30.589 --> 00:29:32.769 That is a heavy thought to leave on. But I think 00:29:32.769 --> 00:29:35.230 it's the necessary one. Brandon Lee wasn't just 00:29:35.230 --> 00:29:37.809 the crow guy. He was a philosopher, a rebel, 00:29:37.990 --> 00:29:40.609 a reluctant fighter, and an artist who was just 00:29:40.609 --> 00:29:44.410 finding his voice. Absolutely. If you take anything 00:29:44.410 --> 00:29:47.970 away from this deep dive, let it be this. Go 00:29:47.970 --> 00:29:51.220 watch Showdown. in Little Tokyo. Go watch Rapid 00:29:51.220 --> 00:29:54.519 Fire. And then watch The Trow. But don't just 00:29:54.519 --> 00:29:56.640 watch for the kicks and the action. Watch for 00:29:56.640 --> 00:29:59.460 the guy who is smirking at the camera, who's 00:29:59.460 --> 00:30:01.799 in on the joke, who is trying to tell you that 00:30:01.799 --> 00:30:04.359 he's so much more than just a name. Thanks for 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:06.240 listening to this deep dive. This one is going 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:07.819 to stay with me for a while. We'll catch you 00:30:07.819 --> 00:30:08.700 on the next one. Take care.